Advent calendar: 15. Reading time

Polly loves books. There are three things about Polly and books that I want to share with you.

Joining in

In some books she will sign along with the words and/or pictures. For example, in The Very Hungry Caterpillar, she sticks her finger in her mouth to go “pop!” when we get to the bit where the caterpillar comes out of the egg.In This Little Baby she signs for baby on each page, waves hello back to the first one, and signs “bed” at the last baby who is lying down for a rest. In The Paper Bag Princess she roars when she sees the dragon. I love this interactivity. One day, she won’t just be joining in with the odd bit, she’ll be reading to me!

Exploring

Some books have really rich illustrations with lots going on. She loves these, as there is so much to find. She’ll grab my finger and point to things. Sometimes this is to ask me what it is. Sometimes it’s to show she’s spotted it. Sometimes it’s in response to me asking where something is. Favourite books for doing this include The Baby’s Catalogue, the Letterland ABC, Shirley Hughes’ Out and About which she likes to read with her Ma, and her baby signing books – especially the Animal Signs one. We can spend ages on just one page, pointing from one item to the next. “Apple. Ball. Apple. Flower. Apple. Ball. Ball. Frog.”

Acting out

There are two stories that Polly acts out with her Duplo. Firstly, The Paper Bag Princess, where she takes the crocodile, flies it all around her Duplo house, roaring, and then takes every other figure or item out of the house, throwing them on the floor. It took a while for me to realise that this is the dragon destroying Princess Elizabeth’s castle, and flying off with Prince Ronald. The other one she does is from The Elephant And The Bad Baby, where she puts the baby on the back of the elephant, and they go “Rumpeta rumpeta rumpeta” all down the road.

Both our kids loved The Elephant and the Bad Baby – once they got older they could recite bits of the story, or change the shops/products or go into paroxysms of giggling when the baby says no to the pie, so the elephant took him home and the story finished within the first five pages!